Ethics

NYPD Sued For Enforcing Religious Rules

By Ed Brayton

I don't know how I missed this when it happened a few weeks ago, but somehow I did. A man is suing the NYPD after a police officer restrained him and ejected him from Yankee Stadium because he tried to go to the bathroom during the singing of "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch:

The New York Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against the Police Department on behalf of a Queens man who was ejected from the old Yankee Stadium last August after trying to use the bathroom during the playing of "God Bless America."

The suit says the man, Bradford Campeau-Laurion, 30, of Astoria, Queens, was the victim of religious and political discrimination. The suit says he was forcibly restrained and ejected from the Bronx stadium on Aug. 26, after trying to walk past a police officer as the patriotic hymn was played.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).